Newsletter

Local fishing activity still lagging

Coastal fishing action continues to be slow with very little activity reported during the past seven days.

Sheepshead and red drum continue to be at the top of the catch list, both inshore and around the offshore artificial reefs.

The recent cold front apparently has caused another Savannah-area bait shrimp supplier to temporarily shut down for a few weeks.

Adam’s Bait Shop, located adjacent to the public boat ramp at Thunderbolt, has closed and will re-open in March.

Two reports of inshore sheepshead action were noted. Kelly Kitchen emailed a photo of “Click” Clark of Richmond Hill with a whopping 21-inch sheepshead he landed New Year’s Day while fishing in the vicinity of Ossabaw Island.

Another came from John Cheeks, who emailed a photo of Jay White holding another big sheepshead caught around the docks on the Wilmington River.

Hooked, re-hooked

Seems that this particular sheepshead was determined to feed, even after it was hooked and then broke free.

According to John, Jay had hooked the big fish and was about to land it when the sheepshead bolted and broke the line.

Jay was obviously upset, John noted, but didn’t give up.

He immediately tied on another hook, baited it and went looking for another.

John also suggested that the big fish may have felt sorry for White, who he says never had caught a fish, and decided to give him another chance. It took the bait again and was not so lucky the second time around.

“It was evident this was the same fish because it still had the first hook in its mouth,” he wrote.

For the record, Jay’s sheepshead tipped the scales at 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

Heavy duty catch

Another story came from Savannah seafood dealer Charles (Charlie) Russo Jr., who last week with longtime friend and former Savannah resident Barry Wilson, got into some heavy duty action in waters off Virginia and North Carolina.

The striped bass action took place off Virginia Beach. Big stripers! And the action was about as furious as it can get.

Fishing close to the beach with Georgia Georgiades, a wholesale seafood dealer from Norfolk, the group caught and landed 53 stripers weighing 20 to 38 pounds.

Most were released, Charlie said. The daily catch limit for that area of Virginia is two per day per angler with a minimum length of 28 inches.

Trolling with double rigs, the bite was so frequent that on three occasions they had double hits — the last being 35- and 38-pounders.

Gulf Stream

Another part of the trip took them to the Gulf Stream out of North Carolina’s Oregon Inlet at the Outer banks. This time it was for even larger heavyweight: bluefin tuna.

For Charlie, it was a battle to remember, hooking a 275-pound bluefin that took more than two hours to subdue.

Barry, too, had a two-hour battle with one, only to have the leader snap as he was about to land it.

That’s a lot of heavy duty action for two days of fishing.

Mahi

Still another offshore story comes from Capt. Chris Page and the Team Ex-Ta-Sea.

According to Chris, this was a recent overnight trip, again to the swordfish grounds well offshore. On board with him were sons Zack, Zane and Brendin, along with Kent Phillips and Brian Williams.

First stop was the Navy Tower for some bait and then a run to the Ledge, which after radio contact with some others in the area, didn’t sound too promising.

“We set our spread and things were slow,” he wrote. “We managed to pick up one bonita and one blackfin after a few hours of trolling.”

Then Chris said Zane spotted a rip in deeper water, and they trolled in that direction. “We found a 1.5-degree temperature change on the other side, and the weeds were piled up. We trolled the warm side of the rip and could see mahi (dolphin-fish) jumping out of the water in front of us,” he related, adding they would hardly get trolling when from one to three rods would go off with mahi jumping on the other end.

“We caught them on live baits, cedar plugs. Spoons and home-made lures,” he noted, saying some were small and released, but the majority were keepers with a few big ones brought to gaff. “It was non-stop action until it was time to head for the swordfish grounds.”

Night time, and the first drift attracted a strike — an undersized sword that was landed and then released. It was the only hit of the night.

Blackfin

The group returned to the Ledge well before daylight and were ready for the first light bite.

“No sooner did we get the first bait in the water, and it was fish on,” Chris continued. “After a bit of give and take, a nice fat blackfin came to gaff. The action was hot with multiple hook-ups at a time, and it seemed we lost as many fish as we landed. Once the sun came up, the bite turned off.”

Again committing to lengthy trolls with only a single blackfin and a few bonita to show for the effort, the wind began to pick up as did the waves.

They headed home — 38 mahi in the boat, the largest weighing 15 pounds, and 14 blackfin, largest 31 pounds.

John Burke can be reached at 912-655-8505, or by email at john.burke@savannahnow.com.